The Rise

Chapter Sixty-Six

The trees shook with such vigor I thought they would uproot and she would try to throw them at me, but they didn't. Instead they rustled wildly, releasing the green aura from them. The green aura was swimming around her, growing and growing and growing.

The closest trees to her began to lose their leaves. They grew brittle and broken and were swept away in the wind. Next were the branches. They cracked as they broke off. The wind made them fly through the air, through the forest. From afar I heard windows break.

Each moment that passed she became more and more powerful. She would be able to last for days like this if she kept it up, so I was going to have to stop it. I would do anything to stop it, even if it meant entering the darkness that I was so afraid of.

Sure, I could come out of it after a few moments, but I had never been in it for such a long time before. Who knew what would happen? I just had to remember that if I wanted to come out of it, I had to touch Damon's mark - no matter how much I wanted to soak in the darkness.

Another black film blurred my vision. I didn't know how I was going to do this intelligently without my vision, but I needed to trust myself. Black and White were going to be my eyes and my snakes were my arms.

After another film fully restricted my vision, I felt the snakes thrash within me. Soon, my feet left the ground. I could feel myself rising and rising. Through my wolves' ears I could hear the trees rustle louder around me and I knew she was taking the life from the trees.

"Now," I said, releasing the snakes from my hold. It was now or never. If I didn't release them, I didn't know how much power she was going to have. As she gathered the power within her, my snakes ate through the surrounding trees.

They cracked and they fell under me. The quick sizzling of poison on bark drifted through my ears. Mother Nature made a noise - a yell or a screech - I couldn't tell exactly, but the snakes continued to eat away at all forms of life around us.

Something, which I was assuming a vine, shot out and wrapped around my body. It tightened as quickly as she could tighten it around my torso. She didn't shoot more out of her fingers, so I assumed she continued to absorb the energy from the trees around her.

A power built within my chest. I needed to stop this for everyone who has been affected by Mother Nature. For Damon. For Luca. For mother. For every single one of the pups who died. For everyone who was counting on me.

For a moment, my vision turned white and a pain split through my chest. White and black films fought in my vision and ended up making a grey swirl of sorts. Power radiated from my chest and the vines began to melt away.

The power of the Moon and the Night was beyond incredible to me.

Mother Nature shrieked again and this time she sent two vines to wrap around each wrist and one to wrap around my torso. Again, my breathing was restricted but I wasn't going to stop. This was nothing. I was more powerful than anyone around and anyone before me.

I wouldn't let a simple goddess with no true body try to take that away from me.

I screamed, fighting the vines. My skin burned like it had before, and I swore I felt the patterns of the stars begin burning through my skin. And before I knew it, I was free again from her hold.

The snakes continued to pull me further and further in many different directions. It had seemed like they were still searching for more trees, more forms of nature to dispose of. But if there was no more forest to devour, then we would have to find some.

Without even trying to fight her or trying to kill her, I let my snakes take me in the direction of more trees in the forest. They ate everything. Mother Nature groaned, then she started begging and begging for me to stop, but I couldn't stop. Nor did I want to.

The snakes continued to devour, continued to destroy. Her body smacked against the ground, making it rumble underneath me. She continued to cry out and beg. Her voice became softer and softer until I honestly couldn't hear it anymore.

I waited a few more moments, then I forced myself to graze my fingers against Damon's mark. Immediately, I came back down to reality. I was so much farther than I had even imagined. The whole forest had been destroyed. For miles it was nothing but an empty field with black streaks across it. And because they gave her life... she had to be drained and empty of power too.

I teleported all the way back to where the Great Oak once was. Luca laid on the ground, doubled over.

She lifted her hand in his direction. A sad excuse for her vines tried to protrude from her body--very slowly. Black came over and latched his teeth into it, making it die and crumble onto the ground.

She gazed up at me, on her back, again trying to do something to stop me. Her arm shook as she raised it in my direction, but then suddenly just fell by her side. Her eyes glazed over.

From her mouth, a spirit was released. A green mixed with black aura swirled around in the air like Luca's and Ayodele's had before they disappeared. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, it dispersed into thin air, drifting and drifting in all different directions until it disappeared.

I collapsed, feeling drained from all the power I had used in the past two weeks. I rested my head on Luca's chest and stared up into the sky.

It was over.